St. Mary’s and state investigators, acting on a tip last week that someone planned to use a pipe bomb to blow up a natural gas line, carried out a raid at a house, court papers state, before they charged a Park Hall woman with making a false report of the scheme.

Charlene Frances Woody, 53, was charged with two offenses of making a false statement to a law officer, and a single charge of making a false statement concerning the location and possible detonation of a destructive device. A conviction for the latter offense carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

Woody originally told authorities that she saw the foot-long metal pipe bomb in a man’s possession at his residence, and after last Thursday’s raid at his home found no evidence, she said a family member might have warned the man that police had been contacted, according to a charges application filed by St. Mary’s sheriff’s Cpl. Sarah Russell. The family member denied that Woody had said anything to her about the matter, court papers state, and that the man only contacted her after the raid, to accuse Woody of sending police to his home.

The Maryland state fire marshal’s office took part in the investigation.